The first curious quote to come out of Jennings’ introduction was this: “Now I can just actually be myself and be who I was five years ago when I was in high school and playing AAU basketball.”

Just generalizing here, but Jennings has been in the NBA for four years, and spent a year playing professionally in Italy. You’d have to assume he does not mean that he has learned nothing in his NBA career, that he means he wasn’t surrounded by enough talent in Milwaukee to be the playmaker he wanted to be. That’s reasonable—in his four years with the Bucks, their shooting percentage ranked 29th, 30th, 20th and 28th in the NBA.

But it should also be considered that Jennings was, in part, responsible for that messy shooting. It’s the point guard’s job to run the offense and get the best shots he can for the team. The Bucks were not blessed with good scorers, on the inside or the outside, but Jennings didn’t necessarily make the situation better. Over his career, he has had an assist rate (percentage of teammate field goals on which he assisted) of 28.0, which is decidedly average. He can blame that on teammates, but his playmaking will have to improve in Detroit.

That leads to the second thing that Jennings said that warrants some attention, which was this: “I definitely have to change my game for this team, for my teammates, everybody to be successful. Just with the talent that I have around me, you know we have a great front court, we have some great vets, we have Stuckey, we have Billups, we have a bunch of great players, so the things that I was doing in Milwaukee, I won’t have to do here, take all those bad shots, because we have so many pieces.”

What Jennings is essentially saying here is that he took “all those bad shots” in Milwaukee because he had no other choice. Again, the Bucks were not blessed with offensive weapons, especially not in the post, so Jennings has a point.

But Jennings’ big problem in the NBA to this point hasn’t necessarily been the bad shots he has taken—it has been his inability to make the good shots he has taken. Jennings is quick and shifty, able to slither into the lane and get shots close to the basket. Once there, though, he is a poor finisher.

Take a look at Jennings’ shooting percentages at and near the rim over the years (from Basketball-reference.com):

For Jennings, ’11-’12 was easily his best year in the NBA and it wasn’t because of his assist percentage (26.7) or because he developed an outside shot (33.2 percent on 3s). It was because he made good decisions in attacking the rim, and finished once he was there. He also had the most luck of his career with his in-the-lane floater, a shot that he has frustratingly yet to master.

Now, the dream scenario for the Pistons is that Jennings is right, and that playing with the frontcourt pairing of Greg Monroe—a deft passer and a dangerous big man on the elbow—and potentially dominant interior force Andre Drummond will change things completely. Jennings could have more room in the paint when he does drive, and not be required to attempt circus shots near the basket as the defense collapses on him.

It could also help to have Chauncey Billups on the roster. One thing Jennings needs to do more when he does drive to the basket is accept contact and get to the free-throw line, something Billups mastered over his career.

Billups was never a great finisher at the rim, but he made up for it by averaging 5.0-7.0 free-throw attempts per game. Jennings is a very good free-throw shooter (81.3 percent) and he should boost his 3.6 attempts per game average going forward. Billups can help him with that.

When taken as a whole, Jennings could be set up for much better numbers in Detroit, where he will have a better cast around him and most likely will have more help with the weakest link in his game, his in-the-paint efficiency. But there is also the possibility that Jennings just isn’t very good in the paint, and that he is only an average playmaker.

In other words, he could play like the AAU star he was as a teenager. Or he could be the so-so point man he has been in the NBA to this point.